[Episcopal News Service]Social justice workers, writers or those interested in exploring the power of words and how to use them to effect change will meet at the Ghost Ranch Campus in Abiquiu, New Mexico May 22-28 for a week-long course on writing for peace and justice.

Greg Garrett, a second year divinity student at Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest, will teach "Writing for Peace and Justice: Being a Voice for Change," emphasizing how to use the power of words to direct attention and energy toward issues concerning them in their community, the nation, and the world.

Examples of advocacy writing and speaking from writers like Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar Chavez, Barbara Jordan, and others will be used to help attendees learn first-hand about social justice issues in northern New Mexico, and study how to successfully employ different modes of communication, including speeches, essays, sermons, op-ed pieces, memos, and narrative.

In addition to discussing writing in progress and topics of concern, Garrett, who teaches English and film at Baylor University and is the author of "Free Bird," and "The Gospel Reloaded: Exploring Spirituality and Faith in The Matrix," will have participants draw from Robert Linthicum's "Transforming Power" to learn ways of organizing a community so that words can have an impact beyond a page or pulpit.

Essential selections from the writings of the co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, whose cause for sainthood is underway.

TO READ: MEASURE OF A MAN (FACETS) by Dr. Martin Luther King (ISBN: 0800634497) $6.

Eloquent and passionate, reasoned and sensitive, this pair of meditations by the revered civil-rights leader contains the theological roots of his political and social philosophy of nonviolent activism.

Martin Luther King, Jr., was president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and co-pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia. He was Time Magazine's Man of the Year for 1963 and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.